FSU is enduring an awful season, while U.Va. is hot
Virginia linebacker Gahm gets his chance to shine as starter
If some football clairvoyant had told Matt Gahm in 2016, months before he arrived at Virginia, his first start of his senior season would come at Florida State, he’d have rightfully assumed he would be taking center stage against one of the nation’s top programs.
He’d have had no reason to think otherwise, considering just four years ago FSU was destined for its fifth straight season of 10-plus wins. A lot has changed for Gahm, U.Va. and FSU since those days — and it hasn’t been positive change for the Seminoles.
With Cavaliers linebacker and co-captain Charles Snowden going out for the season last weekend with a broken right ankle, Gahm is indeed likely getting his first start of the season tonight at FSU. It’s not the perfect way for him to get his fifth college start, but he plans to take the same approach he’s always had as Virginia (4-4, 3-4 ACC) aims for its fourth consecutive win.
“I wouldn’t say my mentality has changed at all,” said Gahm, a linebacker from Dallas who added Monday he won’t look to return to U.Va. next season for another year of eligibility because he’s already accepted a job in Washington, D.C., as a consultant for Deloitte.
“Just put your helmet on and go to work like you always do. It was hard seeing a teammate, especially one I’ve been around so long and a good friend of mine, go down. We were all very sad to see that, so after the (win against Abilene Christian) in the locker room, we tried to comfort him as much as possible.”
FSU (2-6, 1-6) isn’t the same program it was when Gahm first got to Charlottesville. Not even close.
Headed for its third straight losing season, these Seminoles make the Bobby Bowden and Jimbo Fisher eras — the program won three national championships in a 20-year stretch — seem like they happened in a dream world.
Coming into the weekend on a three-game skid, and having lost six games by an average margin of 22.2 points, first-year FSU coach Mike Norvell has had trouble keeping his program competitive. FSU, now with a winning percentage of .250, is in danger of finishing under .273 for the first time since 1975, when it went 1-10 (.091).
Injuries and defections haven’t helped FSU.
Quarterback James Blackman entered the transfer portal, wide receiver Tamorrion Terry left the team, and quarterback Chubba Purdy and defensive tackle Marvin Wilson are out for the season with injuries — and that’s just a sampling of the more prominent issues that have befallen the Seminoles.
Sophomore Jordan Travis, who leads FSU with 469 rushing yards but has completed just 52% of his passes for 864 yards, four touchdowns and five interceptions, has taken over the starting quarterback role for a team that’s 11th in the ACC in total offense (381 yards per game), 13th in scoring offense (22 points per game) and 14th in passing offense (196.6 ypg).
FSU has been worse on the defensive side, where it’s 14th in the ACC in both total defense (giving up 464 ypg) and scoring defense (surrendering 36.1 ppg).
Virginia has had its share of defensive injuries this season.
Gahm, who is sixth on the team and leads all backups with 25 tackles, could be the 16th different starter for a unit that also lost co-captain Richard Burney, a Hickory High alum at defensive end; saw starting defensive tackle Jowon Briggs transfer midseason to Cincinnati; and has had to deal with injuries to starting safeties Joey Blount, Brenton Nelson and D’Angelo Amos. Elliott Brown is also expected to get a lot of playing time at linebacker in Snowden’s absence.
Virginia’s ability to get back to .500 after a 1-4 start while juggling its defensive roster, persevering after starting quarterback Brennan Armstrong sat out 1 ½ games with a concussion and staying remarkably free of serious coronavirus problems has made coach Bronco Mendenhall proud.
“The team has remained playable and healthy enough for us to be kind of counted on by anyone that’s going to play us that, ‘Yeah, you’re playing Virginia. There’s a great chance you’re going to play the game, because their history is they’re going to have their roster and they’re going to be there no matter what,’” said Mendenhall, who didn’t permit his players to leave campus this week for Thanksgiving in order to try to maintain good coronavirus testing results.
“That reputation is hard to earn and, again, it’s to this point — I know things can change, but they want to play, and they want to improve, and they want to finish strong. I think their performance is showing that.”